Well ... after reading Giles' links and a few others I'd found, and putting the latin script ones through BabelFish where neccessary this is what I've concluded......

Nowhere outside the UK seems to have marketed the car as the GT4. There are passing references to the PS2 game and the yellow Z featured therein, but everyone else calls it the "35th Anniversary Edition"

Much of that was I suspected, but the surprise that caught me unawares was that there was a Roadster version in the 'States! The Roadster must have been quite new then but it does account for the two reports I've read of a UY Roadster (one in Japan, and one in the UK).

350Z GRAN TURISMO 4 – What is it? (Please excuse the uppercase, that’s how Sony marketed the game – see below)

Well, for a start, it’s more accurately known as the Nissan 350Z 35th Anniversary Edition. Produced in 2005 I have found launch information for the Japan, USA, Australia, France & UK marketplaces. (Currently no mention of New Zealand or other European countries.) This was to mark the 35th anniversary of the debut of the original Datsun 240Z.

The car itself was limited availability and was produced in three colours: Ultra Yellow (E33, a “metallic”), Kuro (KH3, a non-metallic Black) & Silverstone (WV2, a metallic grey known in the UK as Gunmetal but this Anniversary variant wasn’t taken in the UK – or Europe?).

The Press Releases and Reviews sometimes mentioned the link of the car to the recently launched GRAN TURISMO 4 game for the Sony PS2, which itself features a Yellow 350Z. However it seems NMGB’s Marketing department took it upon themselves to make a stronger association and decided to market the car with numbered, limited edition GT4 plaques. It is for this reason the only reference you will see to the actual GT4 branding is on the plaques rather than the Anniversary cars themselves. The Anniversary model differenciating factors for the rest of the car are the same as those for the worldwide edition, e.g. special “Z” badges on the sides, special wheels (later to become standard everywhere except the UK) and the new “rev-up” version of the engine which was to later become standard in the MY06 face-lifted version.

Nissan Europe had announced only 700 cars would be available in Europe, of which 176 cars were allocated for the UK and 83 for France (which leaves 441 to still be researched, or 440 if we include the one from Cyprus!!).

NMGB also decided to supply with each car, a boxed Sony PS2 complete with GT4 game. That was the Marketing Plan. The Sales version seemed to add a few enhancements of its own but I’ve yet to find any evidence to support it. For example, last month, more than two years after the launch, I still had a Nissan salesman telling me that the PS2 came in a leather case with the limited edition number on it*, and that the leather seats have yellow stitching to match the car colour (instead of the normal orange). I have yet to find any evidence to support these sales-tales!

*To be fair, maybe that had been discussed at the car’s launch and that was why two plaques were prepared for each number. But I’ve never met anyone who’s actually seen a leather case - but I’d love to hear if anyone has!

It is generally accepted that NMGB intended there to be 76 Ultra Yellows and 100 Kuros. Funnily enough the Kuros seem rarer than the UYs – maybe the people who choose black keep a lower profile than those who choose yellow!

Part two of this story is now going to be about Options (once I’ve collected some more information) and Part three will try and piece together build and sales patterns for GB’s 176 from the details collected in the GT4 Register – watch this space!

WoREoD (John?) - been trying to email you details of my GT4 but got the following back from your mail account:

does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 551 Unknown user.
Giving up on

PM me and I'll pass you the info on my car...?

(Edited to say: apologies for posting the IP address earlier; not being too internet / computer savvy didn't realise it was his own IP address, thought it was the mail server or something! And thanks for removing it! )